Please obey all traffic regulations

On Tuesday we picked up a hire car (rental) and got an upgrade.  Oh Yeah.

Roger drove us south, mostly along the coast of Western Australia until we reached Mandurah.  We had a walkabout the quayside.

Part of the walk was called Venetian Canals Walk.  This was part of it.  Mmmm!  I somehow feel no-one from the town had ever visited Venice!

We drove on south and stopped for lunch in Bunbury.  This was the view from the restaurant.

We continued south to Busselton where we checked in to our accommodation.  The Airbnb in Fremantle was booked well in advance but on the road trip we decide where we will get to the next night and then find somewhere on Hotels.com

We took an early evening drive to Cape Naturaliste.  This was the nearest I got to photographing a sunset the whole 3 week trip!

The lighthouse was on the headland and we walked a loop around it hoping to see whales out in the bay.  We didn't.

Wednesday morning we went to see Bussleton Jetty.  A train runs along it and we did consider walking the length of the pier (1.7km) and possibly getting the train back but in the end we got in the car and continued our journey south.

We stopped at Yallingup where we saw amazing waves and people being taught to surf.

Then a short drive away we came to Canal Rocks.

Personally I think I'd call them fissures in the rock not canals  But there again if the signpost had said Fissure Rocks we might not have bothered to drive to them.

We continued on through Margaret River, Prevelly and Augusta, getting to another lighthouse which was shut.

Further along the south coast but a little way inland we came to Pemberton where we had booked a room at  Forest Lodge.  The room turned out to be a cabin in beautiful grounds.

And with these guys as neighbours.

We had dinner at the hotel in Pemberton sharing a table with an Australian couple from Queensland. They were Avocado farmers so we had a really interesting evening asking them about that.

 

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice 

Oh and why the title? 
Because if we dared go even 1 kph over the speed limit the satnav would say 'Please obey all traffic regulations'.  She also warned us when we came to railway crossings - even those where the rails had been removed.  Of course we could have turned the voice off if only we had known how.

Heritage and Wildlife

The first weekend we were in Australia had two distinct flavours.  On Saturday, Andy drove us to Wollondilly to a small Heritage Museum.

Inside the schoolroom there were books I remember from my childhood.

Admittedly we used the English version not the Australian version of The Happy Venture series

We were the only ones visiting the museum and a lovely volunteer guide took the three grandchildren on a private tour.

Sunday saw the 7 of us set out for the Hunter Valley and a few days away.  Andy took us to the Australia Wildlife Centre on the way where you could walk amongst the kangaroos.

Some of the animals were fenced in but the children were still able to feed the goats and the pig.

After a picnic lunch, we continued our journey to our holiday house where we were met by a mob of kangaroos waiting for us to feed them.

And the view was spectacular

What a great start to a family holiday.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Crossing the border

After breakfast on Saturday morning we walked down from the lodge we were staying in to the river and walked alongside the river and up to the street.

Here we found kangaroos who all stopped to look at us.

This pair were about to start boxing, but immediately stopped and looked at us.  I felt they were sayin 'what us!  no we're not fighting!'

However they started!

We drove on along the Princes Highway and crossed over the 'border' from Victoria into New South Wales.  Or should that be Whales?  In Eden we went to the Killer Whale Museum.

It seemed odd to have a museum dedicated to Killer Whales rather than whales in general but there was a fascinating story there about how the Killer Whales helped the fishermen.

The view from the museum

We continued to Tathra and the Wharf Museum.  We took a short walk on the headland.

We were booked to stay in a motel in Bermagui but drove past it to go to a small place called Combago.  The tourist guide raved about the place but sadly on a Saturday afternooon there was only one shop open.   The bushfire had gone through the village and burned a couple of  wooden buildings and this railway carriage.

The building to the left of the pharmacy had burned down.

On Sunday we continued north, stopping first in Central Tilba.  This is a heritage village and almost every shop was open.  I think if we'd realised how pretty it was, we would have found accommodation there.

We travelled on through Bateman's Bay and on to Ulladulla where we had lunch.  Then, as we had time, we went on a circular drive through St. George's Basin, Huskisson and Sussex Inlet.

The final morning of our road trip and the weather looked miserable.

However it cleared up.

We stopped off at Shellharbour.

We continued towards Sydney, arriving at our destination at Brighton-Le-Sands in time for lunch!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice